Quirky comic character vs gloomy social reality. We saw it in Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful". We had seen it in Charles Chaplin's "The Kid". Tina and Lester Pine, Arthur Hiller and Alan Arkin give us the yarn of Abraham, a Puerto Rican widower who will do anything (well, nearly everything) to take his two little sons out of East Harlem and into a better life. Act one in the ghetto is grim and the laughter comes as an occasional chuckle, but the last thirty minutes - especially the scene with Abraham as an interpreter between the kids and the authorities - are nothing short of hilarious with very black humor. Viewers may deplore the hero's lack of ethics, but his fanatic devotion to the survival of his children will surely win him their sympathy. One of the best works from director Hiller and comedian Arkin.
Review of Popi
